Baltic entry to NATO debated (excerpts)
Jan Nowak, ”The Washington Times” , June 13, 2001

In his landmark speech to the recent regional defense conference in Bratislava, Czech President Vaclav Havel proposed that the order of priorities for NATO enlargement should be reversed. The Baltic states and Slovakia should be the first of the new states admitted, he argued, not the last. (...) The United States has only one year to develop a clear position on the next stage of NATO enlargement before the next summit meeting. The administration has little time, therefore, to formulate its own policy and to convince its allies to accept that policy. (...) In a few days, President Bush will have an opportunity to articulate his policies in Brussels and in Warsaw. It must be hoped that he will go beyond the repetition of old cliches about the doors to NATO being open, while nobody is invited inside, or that Russia has no right of veto but we have to respect Russian sensitivities. Or finally, that we want a free and united Europe, while declining to say where the borders of a united Europe will be drawn.    u